Tuesday, March 4, 2014

It’s been a half a year and Chris
Christie is still in the news. At least his administration is in trouble because
they shut down two of three access lanes to the GeorgeWashingtonBridge. Last August, a
deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, emailed David Wildstein, the governor’s
appointee to the Port Authority, saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Wildstein
responded, “Got it.” And, “it” caused a huge traffic jam for days and the
question remains, “Did Christie know about it?”

Americans just won’t put up with
dirty tricks like deliberately causing people to wait in lines for hours to get
to New York and if Christie knew about it, he
is not fit to be president of the United States.We have high standards.

On the other hand, people in Gaza wait in their cars
all day, every day, or stand in line for six to twelve hours, holding a jug, hoping
to get enough fuel oil to cook supper for their children.Standing in line is a deliberate tactic in Gaza and everyone, including Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime
Minister of Israel, and Barack Obama, President of the United States knows
who is responsible. We just don’t care enough to discuss it.Our standards for Israel are pretty low.

The Washington Report on Middle
East Affairs tells us:

Fuel shortages
are a chronic problem for Gaza’s
1.7 million imprisoned residents. Israel
controls the entry of all fuel supplies into the Gaza strip. Israelis living just a few miles
away enjoy plentiful supplies and easy access to fuel, while in Gaza fuel for
heating, emergency generators, vehicles and cooking are dependent on infrequent
deliveries.Often only smuggled fuel is
available --- and fuel coming through Israel is unaffordable.[1]

While every necessity in Gaza requires waiting in
long lines, whether for fuel, getting to school or trying to see a doctor, the
worst of it is seeking food.

Food shortage is a policy of Israel
and it has been for years. Not unlike
the administrative powers of the Christie administration, five years ago, the
administrative powers of Israel
described Israel’s plan for Gaza.“The idea is to put the Palestinians on a
diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”[2]Of course, Israel puts the spin on it that its
goal is to prevent starvation.But
cutting food trucks allowed into Gaza
from 400 trucks a day to 67 exposes its true purpose. Netanyahu’s health ministry has
determined that Gazans need only 2,276 calories a day to keep from starving. Thus,
that is all they get, except of course, when Israel closed the crossing
completely for ten days to celebrate Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), when no
trucks were allowed in. Israel’s
“diet” program simply does not express benevolence to anyone … except those who
deliberately choose to be blind to the everyday crimes against the people of Gaza.

Targeting fertilizer plants and
chicken farms in the bombing of 2008-09 caused massive food insecurity, but raised
little ire in the US
media, our halls of government or even in our churches.

On the first day of the Gaza
offensive, Yoav Galant, the commander in charge, explained the aim succinctly:
it was to “send Gaza
decades into the past.” Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai may have been
thinking in similar terms when months before Operation Cast Lead, he warned
that Israel was preparing in
inflict on Gaza
a Holocaust.”[3]

Eighteen year olds with machine
guns holding trucks at crossing points until milk, fruit and vegetables spoil
in the hot sun has little to do with security. The International Committee of the Red Cross
reports: “Chronic malnutrition in Gaza.”
No surprise.What is surprising is that
good Americans who would not tolerate the government of New Jersey shutting
down two lanes of a bridge, which caused a traffic jam, will sit by silently
while the government of Israel shuts down Gaza’s only supply of fuel, food, seed,
water, medicines and electricity and has done so for years. Christie gets boos at the Super Bowl and
Netanyahu gets standing ovations at the joint meeting of congress.

Like the people of Jersey
waiting to get across the bridge, the people of Gaza wait. They have been waiting for 65
years.

Thomas L. Are

I preached for forty three years in the Presbyterian Church before retiring. If anyone would ever refer to me as a Liberation Theologian, I would be pleased. I started blogging several years ago to express my political and religious concern for justice, especially justice for the Palestinians.